The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a British command post, has inserted itself in the British-American-NATO policy-making process, so that its report, “Dangerous Targets: Civilian Nuclear Infrastructure and the War in Ukraine,” released April 28, appears to be a governing policy-planning guidance overview that the West is now following to escalate toward nuclear war, over a supposed Russian destruction of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP)
The report states that “Russia may manufacture a radiological incident at the ZNPP or another facility to spoil a Ukrainian offensive,” and that that the West should “mak[e] clear to Russia that any such incident would be followed by a massive response to mitigate damage.” Under the RUSI scenario of escalation, allies of Ukraine might offer military “personnel” to Ukraine, which would lead to a direct confrontation with NATO.
RUSI effectively wrote the script for the resolution that Senators Lindsay Graham (R-SC) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) introduced June 22 into the Senate, stating that if Russia used nuclear weapons in Ukraine, it would be “at war with NATO,” with Blumenthal adding that Russia would face “total obliteration by NATO forces.” Graham specifically writes on his website that the “resolutions views … the destruction of a nuclear facility, dispersing radioactive contaminants into NATO territory causing significant harm to human life, as an attack on NATO requiring an immediate response, including the implementation of Article V of the North Atlantic Treaty.”
RUSI’s appears to be the policy behind the June 23 New Statesman article in which Kyrylo Budanov, who leads Ukraine’s Main Directorate Military Intelligence, openly lies that “Russia has finished preparations for an attack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant,” that would “bring… about a nuclear accident.” The Times of London headlines its June 22 story, “Zelensky Warns of Plot to Blow Up Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.”
RUSI’s “Dangerous Targets” report states that a direct strike attack on the Zaporozhye NPP reactor or its dry spent-fuel storage, may not cause a radiological explosion, because the ZNPP design is more advanced than that of the earlier Chernobyl NPP. “An accidental hit on a reactor unit or a dry spent-fuel storage facility under the current state of military activity around Ukrainian NPP’s is unlikely to cause a major radiological incident. The reactors currently operating at Ukrainian NPP’s are located within reinforced containment structures… designed to withstand significant internal and external hazards, including fires, explosions, earthquakes and radioactive [?—ed.] from other accidents, the report asserts (EIR is attempting to verify these statements, which may be true or contain some truth). RUSI asserts that only effectively ‘bunker-busting’ or hypersonic missiles could penetrate.
